I have a huge population of Indian professionals around me, and some of them tried to start playing cricket in the local park. The police chased them off and put up "no having fun on the grass" signs.

There's a group of Indian guys that play on Sunday at the middle school near my house. I go there on the weekends to run on the track so I've watched them play quite a bit. I have no idea what is going on in that game. I've tried to read the rules from wikipedia and it still baffles me.

You might find an audience for cricket among the minority of Americans who come from cricket countries, like you see for MLS from soccer country immigrants, but I don't think they will erode much from the top sports.

However, circket, like baseball, has many built-in commercial break spots (they change bowlers after every 6 bowls, you can run commercials at that time). So, even with a modest audience, they might be profitable.

Our top three sports are American Football, Basketball, and Baseball. They are f*cking awesome sports. We are a country started by immigrants who had all of those other sports to choose from. But they said fark that and INVENTED three better sports instead.

Cricket, Rugby, and Soccer (Futbol) are never going to crack our top 3 here. Soccer is the only one that even belongs in the discussion, if we're going to bother having it.

shower_in_my_socks:Soccer is the only one that even belongs in the discussion, if we're going to bother having it.

And we will still call it soccer.

I'll add that yes, it's retarded that we call football soccer here. But we still call Native Americans "indians" even though we had to know within a few hours of first landing here that they had f*ck all to do with India.

shower_in_my_socks:Our top three sports are American Football, Basketball, and Baseball. They are f*cking awesome sports. We are a country started by immigrants who had all of those other sports to choose from. But they said fark that and INVENTED three better sports instead.

Cricket, Rugby, and Soccer (Futbol) are never going to crack our top 3 here. Soccer is the only one that even belongs in the discussion, if we're going to bother having it.

And we will still call it soccer.

Football at the college/NFL level is in trouble because of all the head injuries. I genuinely wouldn't be surprised to see it either change hugely or even go about 40% away in the next 20-25 years.

But it won't be cricket that fills that gap. It's an ok game, but it would definitely be beaten easily by baseball, soccer, lacrosse, or rugby.

shower_in_my_socks:Our top three sports are American Football, Basketball, and Baseball. They are f*cking awesome sports. We are a country started by immigrants who had all of those other sports to choose from. But they said fark that and INVENTED three better sports instead.

Cricket, Rugby, and Soccer (Futbol) are never going to crack our top 3 here. Soccer is the only one that even belongs in the discussion, if we're going to bother having it.

And we will still call it soccer.

American football is being watered down more every year and the audience for that, I believe, will begin looking for a new bloodsport. Rugby is the only one that could fill that void.

hubiestubert:Americans are still on the fence with hockey, so yeah, I'm not seeing cricket making out better than lacrosse, which is at least native...

It is probably the same bastards that tried to push jai-alai on us in the goddamn '80s Even the 1-2 punch of Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas couldn't get that going. What makes them think normal people are going to do any better?

dr_blasto:hubiestubert: Americans are still on the fence with hockey, so yeah, I'm not seeing cricket making out better than lacrosse, which is at least native...

It is probably the same bastards that tried to push jai-alai on us in the goddamn '80s Even the 1-2 punch of Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas couldn't get that going. What makes them think normal people are going to do any better?

They should just be happy that soccer is doing what it's doing, and bowling alleys are still open.

Soccer will be the first professional sport to displace one of the current big 4 in the U.S. This will happen in the next 20-30 years. The numbers are there. Soccer is the ultimate youth sport, and changing demographics are on its side.

Lacrosse is making a comeback after being in the doldrums since the 70s, but it will never be anything more than a sport for the cultural elites (read: whites in private schools). It just doesn't have mass appeal. Sports equipment manufacturers love it with all the gear and accessories, but that limits the audience since it costs $,$$$ just to get in the door.

As an American with no particular ties to any Commonwealth nation, I've really grown to enjoy cricket recently -- even if things like Duckworth-Lewis blow my mind. The ODI form is easily my favorite even if it is a whole frickin' day. Twenty20, though nice and short, just doesn't seem "cricket-ish" enough. (Test cricket? GTFO.)

The American sport I find to be most like cricket isn't baseball, but (and I know it's going to sound weird) basketball. Both of these sports are won by the steady accumulation of points over an entire game; just a little slide in your scoring rate, and you're going to be in the dust. In baseball, hockey, football, and soccer, there are big, game-changing scores -- the three-run blast, the turnover leading to a touchdown -- but in basketball, even the most dramatic play ever will get you only three points at most, which isn't going to win the game for you (last-second dramatics during a close game excluded). In both cricket and basketball, you've got to keep plugging away all game long.

International cricket comes in three forms, Twenty20, ODI (One Day International) and Test. Twenty20 matches take about as long as a baseball game. And the rules are tweaked a bit to encourage a fair bit of scoring given each side only faces 120 balls. ODI is longer, each team faces 300 balls, but the games aren't necessarily two and a half times as long as Twenty20 matches. And given the right conditions and teams the scoring can be absolutely jaw dropping. Also there's always a chance a team will end its innings before getting to 300 balls. Test matches take 3 to 5 days and that's where things get very cricket. Each day is divided into three segments. And since the rules stipulate unless both teams finish both of their innings there is no winner, you have quite a few matches that end in a draw. On the other hand, you get things like centuries, 100 runs by one batter in one innings, quite regularly. And whereas single game scoring records in other sports take all sorts of things going right, the batting record, 400 by Brian Lara, could fall at any time someone gets hot and keeps going. So no matter the match as a batsman gets farther from 100 the excitement builds as people wonder "Could it be today?".

Also there's domestic cricket, where matches follow similar formats to international cricket just with different names, so multi-day matches are referred to as list A as opposed to test.. Also in both teams will play one style of match and follow it by a different one. So you might see England and India play an ODI and then a few days later play a test. Oh and in some cases the scoring records for domestic cricket surpass those of international cricket. The batting record in a list A match is 501, by Brian Lara. Yes he batted long enough in one innings to score 501 runs.

And as for the oddball rules, cricket is in some ways simpler than baseball. Like a batsman goes until he's out or his team is out of overs. And the entire field is in play, a batsman can hit the ball to any part of the field, and the good ones are very good about hitting balls to where the fielders aren't. And as for the positions of those fielders and how they move around, well they move around a bunch in baseball too, but how much do you care if a team shifts an outfield for a batter? Exactly. Also as for odd rules, there's nothing like an infield fly rule in cricket. And in cricket you're out or you're not, nothing like what happened in the Pirates Brewers game with the bobbled third strike and throw to first that ended up in right field. Also as for outs, how one happens is as easy to understand as in baseball, save for perhaps leg before wicket.

WhyteRaven74:And as for the positions of those fielders and how they move around, well they move around a bunch in baseball too, but how much do you care if a team shifts an outfield for a batter?

No matter how far left or right the center fielder shifts he's still the center fielder. Any time a cricket fielder takes a step in any direction they change the name of the position. Anderson's moved from mid silly slip to mid silly slip on = Anderson shifted 3' right. As a baseball fan it took me a long time to get used to that.